Save Money with These 3 Water-Saving Strategies

Category: Tips for Your Home

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While clean water from the tap was once in seemingly limitless and inexpensive supply, today water-saving strategies are critical to conserving this increasingly scarce and costly natural resource. Ever-growing demand puts stress on municipal supplies as well as natural sources in the great outdoors. Opening the monthly water bill is no longer a non-event, but a meaningful contributor to household expenditures. Water-saving strategies can help take some of the bite out of the price of daily living. Here are three things you can do:

Install low-flow fixtures. Today, water-conserving models of most common household fixtures are available. In many locales, they’re actually required by local codes. Low-flow showerheads have come a long way since introduction over 20 years ago and today provide superior performance while saving hundreds of gallons a year. Faucet aerators also conserve water in kitchen and bathrooms. Stop flushing money away: old-school models that consume up to 5 gallons per flush can be replaced by water-saving toilets that use as little as 1.2 gallons.

Stay ahead of drips and leaks. Just two dripping faucets in a typical home can waste over 200 gallons of water a year. Don’t put up with it — have a qualified plumber install new washers and/or replace obsolete faucets. No leakage from water supply lines is acceptable or “normal.” Water leaks run 24/7 and can waste hundreds of gallons a day. What’s worse, little leaks are often a reliable early warning sign of internal pipe corrosion that may trigger a major rupture anytime, inflicting big household water damage.

Water wisely. Watering your lawn during daylight hours means most of the moisture is lost to evaporation before it soaks into the ground. Run sprinklers at night or very early a.m. hours — utilize a timer if it’s not convenient. Also avoid watering during windy conditions. Not only is evaporation increased, wind blows sprinkler water in random directions often missing the target areas.